Murrieta Field of Honor to partner with Gary Sinise Foundation, expects new opening day events

Few scenes come closer to reaching the magnitude of honoring our troops than a vast sea of red, white and blue. The emotional field of American flags is returning to Murrieta, Nov. 5-12 in celebration of America’s heroes. For this year’s Field of Honor, the Murrieta Rotary Club will be partnering with the Gary Sinise Foundation to bring the popular 5K “Run Forrest” Run to the event. Women’s Council of Realtors of Southwest Riverside County will be hosting the Military Resource and Services Expo at the event as well, where vendors will be available to those in attendance. Both attractions will be part of the opening day ceremonies held on the first day of the weeklong event.

A display of over 2,000 flags will be lined up in perfect rows and columns to honor personal heroes throughout the community. The event is now expanding into other generous contributors that want to add more activities to the celebration.

“The Run Forrest Run will be a 5K starting and ending at Town Square Park,” said race chairman, Jim Yanoschik, in a press release. “The run/walk will be flat, fast and friendly. There will be aid stations, a great goodie bag and lots of entertainment before and after the event. There will be online registration as well as day of race registration. We are partnering with Gemini Next Timing for race registration and timing.”

The Gary Sinise Foundation’s mission is to honor defenders, veterans, first responders and their families by creating and supporting programs that help build communities.

In addition to the 5K “Run Forrest” Run event, the Murrieta Field of Honor will also feature vendors of the Military Resource and services expo hosted by the Women’s Council of Realtors of Southwest Riverside County. The council put on this event at Temecula City Hall two years ago. They have long awaited the chance to feature it in a public venue.

“We want to have at least 40 vendors and hopefully more,” said President of the Women’s Council of Realtors of Southwest Riverside County, Dee Fether. “Each vendor will have to somehow offer a service or resource – either free or heavily discounted – for current military and veterans and their families.”

The expo encourages vendors to promote activities children can enjoy. This can include balloons, cookie decorating, writing Christmas cards, making artwork and other items they can send abroad. If interested in becoming a vendor, contact Dee Fether by calling (714) 907-7207, or by emailing [email protected]

Field of Honor will also be partnered with Wholesale Capital Corporation Charities, which will donate proceeds earned through participation in the event to the Gary Sinise Foundation.

“The proceeds go straight to the Gary Sinise Foundation, which does incredible work for wounded veterans; one of them is our friend Andrew Bottrell, who is a triple-amputee,” said Ed Hoffman, President of Wholesale Capital Corporation. “The foundation is working with us to retrofit Andrew’s home in San Diego so that it will be a smart home, automated for the needs of a triple amputee.”

Also taking an interest in the event, Paul Mitchell Salons will be doing a “cut-a-thon” to help raise money for the Gary Sinise Foundation. Courtney Davie, the Culture Specialist at the Temecula Paul Mitchell School said that the school plans to bring about 50 students who can take one client every 20 minutes. Hair styling will be offered for $5 and haircuts for $10.

Murrieta Rotary is also seeking artists for its Patriots Chalk Walk to be featured at the event. The chalk walk, which surrounds the display of flags, has been featured for the past four years. Chalk artists will need to paint starting Nov. 5 and continue on through Nov. 6. Chalk will be provided to the artists for painting. Applications, which can be found at murrietarotary.org and murrietafieldofhonor.com will be accepted through Oct. 26